Venting

[SwizzleStick]

So, last week all the school kids were in church practicing Christmas carols when one grade got out of hand (second graders), rowdy and loud. The pastor witnessed the irreverence of the children and loudly told them how disappointed he was in their behavior and also in the teachers for not controlling their classes better. He then left church. Word traveled about this incident. Some parents couldn’t believe he had raised his voice at the kids and in church no less. I personally think he was in the right to correct the children and that the parent reaction was incorrect. Though this is a festive, celebratory time of year, I do not think church is the place for rowdy, loud behavior. I do not like it when people clap in church because I do not think it is appropriate, so that is where I’m coming from…

So, on the kids’ last school day before Christmas break, I went to the all school Mass and sat with my Kindergartener and my older two children sat with their own classes. One of the Assistant Pastors celebrated the Mass. I couldn’t believe it when his “homily” consisted of having a cheering contest with each grade shouting “Merry Christmas” as loudly as they possibly could. He even had the servers hold up scorecards to rate the loudness and encourage rowdy behavior IN CHURCH. Some scores were 8s, some were 9s and some were 10s. It was very loud. I did NOT appreciate this performance at all. I thought about getting up and leaving and noticed that a few elderly parishioners did just that, but basically I just sat there and struggled to maintain my temper and control my incredulity while I also tried to keep my son from getting wound up while several of his classmates stood, pointed, jumped up and down, talked, laughed and shouted. I’ve tried to teach my children from a very early age to be quiet, still, respectful and reverent in church. Last week the pastor reinforced the belief that that was proper behavior in church, which was helpful to me as a parent. And, then we had the AP pull his stunt. I don’t know if the school and church office had been blasted by angry parent phone calls because of the prior incident (Fr. had dared to raise his voice at their little darlings) and the AP was trying to counter that or what. Or, maybe he wanted to stand out as not being a “fuddy-duddy,” I don’t know. But, I was not an appreciative parent of the latter incident. I still cannot believe that this incident happened, especially after the pastor had so recently corrected the children in church. Talk about conflicting messages being sent to the kids. Unbelievable!

 

[stbruno]

Call me a fuddy duddy, but I am with you. Sometimes I think our priests feel that if they act silly during church, the kids will respond better, but instead I think it sends a mixed message to the kids for sure.
One time, one of our associates in his attempt to get kids to understand the concept of sin…he had someone pass out one potato chip to each of the kids in the congregation including himself…and then told them to eat it as he did…Then he asked them if they wanted more and of course the hands went up all around the church. Then he told them, that’s how sin is…you sin, and at first it makes you feel pretty good, so you want to sin more…that’s why we need to avoid those occasions of sin. However, then he invited the kids to receive communion after they had already broken fast.
By this time, most of the adults present except for the teachers who accepted the chips too and ate them with the kids…were aghast. So after mass, I confronted the priest in the sacristy as one of the servers was putting away the items from mass.
I was beside myself, but attempted to help the priest understand how he could have gotten the same message across by just holding up a bag of chips and telling the kids the same story…then he could have passed bags of chips to the homeroom teachers to give to the kids at lunchtime…and at lunch as they ate their chips, recall what they learned during mass about sin.
Then I asked the server if he received communion. And he said no. I asked him why not…he said that he didn’t receive Jesus because he ate a potato chip. I then asked him where he learned that…from the priest? And he said, his mother! I then told the priest, see…he didn’t learn that from you…instead the kids learned, that’s it’s ok to eat chips in church! That’s what these kids took out of here…not about sinning, but about eating in church. Duh!! I then told the priest, I was going to pray for him more to understand that to teach children the right way…you don’t have to reinvent the wheel…support the tenets of the church! Kids will understand.

 

[iluvmybabies]

My mother’s priest told them in last week’s Sunday mass that more and more priests’ are beginning to get too lenient with their teachings…and their followers… That he can’t believe how many are not practicing the way they should be and enforcing the laws of Christ they way they should be…

I am not sure what that really means, since I now found out most of the things I grew up with by my parent’s were not so much as lies but more of controlling ways of bringing me up, and it has like taken me back religious wise as an ignorant, and even though I think many priests might be trying to “walk” in Jesus’ ways and try to be more like “Jesus” with His love for His people and how Jesus lived always giving and always loving and teaching more than punishing??? I don’t know maybe I am speaking out of terms but I am just speculating you know?? I mean every time our Priest here in our church talks to us it’s more about JESUS would have probably been like this or what would JESUS do?? He doesn’t really tell us things like “if you continue doing this you are damned to hell!!” Like it was with my parents…

So I dunno what’s really right or wrong with different Priests teaching…

I know the tribunals are very strict and nuns are too… Does this mean that priests are in the wrong??

I have tried to raise my children in such a manner too, you know, pay respects while in the house of GOD… That’s how I was raised… But my grandmother being a devout Catholic, has always told me that GOD loves cheerfulness and that the louder you sing and proclaim your love and joy to the LORD the happier he gets… And choir in my grandmother’s church is always LOUD…

So maybe for singing to the LORD it’s ok to get loud but not for other things in the church?

None of our priests have ever done things like that in our churches, you know, like eating in during mass or anything like that. Mass is formal and quiet…

Still with the new age and more people converting to other religions, what is the rightful way of a priest to teach in the church?

One priest brought up that this Catholic church someplace I don’t remember, was telling everyone that if they don’t convert to Christianity that they were just giving themselves to the devil? He was like “and people wonder why they don’t like Catholics that much?”



Even if it is true, how do you communicate with future members of the Catholic church or keep the ones that are thinking of converting??? You know??? Interesting subject… Thanks for sharing with us…

 

[SwizzleStick]

Call me a fuddy duddy, but I am with you. Sometimes I think our priests feel that if they act silly during church, the kids will respond better, but instead I think it sends a mixed message to the kids for sure. …

Wow, stbruno. Wow. I think your story tops mine for bad choices. Your reasoning is likely correct as to why some priests do it. But, I would think that they of all people would understand that our faith should not be watered down or made “cool” or “fun” or “fresh” in order to teach it. It is perfect and doesn’t need any help in this way…or in any way. From what I hear, that is what the “feel good” faiths do and I don’t think we Catholics should try to emulate them.